03 May 2023
Winners of RISSB’s Rail Safety Awards Announced Last Night
The winners of the second RISSB Rail Safety Awards were announced at a glittering Awards ceremony in Sydney last night.
The Rail Safety Awards were established in 2022 to recognise and celebrate individual and company safety achievements in the rail industry and promote good practice throughout the sector. The awards are open to any individual working in the rail industry, or an organisation operating in, or affiliated with, rail in Australia and New Zealand.
This year, more than 30 nominations were received across five award categories with six winners announced last night.
Metro Trains’ Melbourne Infrastructure New Ways of Working Project Team took home the Rail Safety Leadership Award for a comprehensive new safety program that since its implementation, has delivered a significant reduction in safety incidents since it was rolled out.
Shayne Carvolth from Downer Rail and Transit Systems and Tristan Lynn from Rio Tinto are joint winners of the coveted Industry Safety Professional of the Year Award recognising careers that span 15 years and accomplishments that range from running fatigue awareness training and embedding risk maturity, to achieving 1,500 LTI free days.
The Community Safety Award was won by Vikki Ducrow from Puffing Billy Railway who was recognised for her leadership in the cultural, safety and operational review of the 120-year-old heritage railway.
Chris Polias’ outstanding commitment to Sydney Trains’ SEQR Service Delivery Team, and his work as a Safety Coach earned him the Frontline Worker Safety Initiative Award.
Finally, this year’s Emerging Leader Award goes to Downer engineer Julian Popowicz for his safety contributions while working on the Warrnambool Line Upgrade Project from June 2020 to December 2021.
RISSB CEO Damien White said that all nominations told a compelling story of passion, concern for others and a firm commitment to zero harm.
“Congratulations to all our award winners and high commendations. This year’s finalists are setting a benchmark and inspiring others to champion safety in the workplace and they rightly deserve the spotlight.
“Rail remains one of the safest forms of transportation and we’re lucky that Australia has an enviable safety record. And I’m sure it will continue to be if these nominations are anything to go by,” he said.
The awards were judged by a representative industry panel, comprising members from Downer, ARTC, MTM, John Holland Rail and CPB Contractors, and scored according to set criteria including safety outcomes, risk mitigation strategies, project complexity and overall achievement, and supported by supplementary documentation submitted by awards nominees.
Each category winner automatically qualifies as an Australasian Rail Industry Awards finalist in the Safety Excellence Award category.
The winners were announced at the Rail Safety Conference dinner held at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Tuesday, 2 May 2023.